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Microsoft has sunk a data centre in the sea off Orkney to investigate whether it can boost energy efficiency.

The data centre, a white cylinder containing computers, could sit on the sea floor for up to five years. An undersea cable brings the data centre power and takes its data to the shore and the wider internet - but if the computers onboard break, they cannot be repaired.

The theory is that the cost of cooling the computers will be cut by placing them underwater.

"We think we actually get much better cooling underwater than on land," says Ben Cutler, who is in charge of what Microsoft has dubbed Project Natick. "Additionally because there are no people, we can take all the oxygen and most of the water vapour out of the atmosphere which reduces corrosion, which is a significant problem in data centres."

The Project Natick team will monitor the data centre for the next five years. It could turn out to be a signpost to the future - or maybe just a tourist attraction for passing fish.

It is interesting that they believe it will be more reliable. It seems like this sort of thing is a perfect use for AI technology that could potentially figure out how to reconfigure systems on the fly in order to keep a sealed unit like this working despite the inevitable failure of components, etc.

I knew cooling is a problem, but it looks like a new way to trash our oceans. But now let's wait 5 years for this project to finish. Maybe the computers will suffer other problems there, which they didn't think of...